The Fire Within
by NinjaDevil2000
Summary: An incredible moment featuring a powerful Ginny. Set during OotP. Ginny lets out her fury when she has enough of her mother's coddling.


Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, I would've made sure Ginny got more incredible moments.

Author's Note: Features a little bit of pre-Harry/Ginny. Obviously, they're not together yet, so this is just a cute little friendly one-shot, with hints at what's to come in their relationship. Please please review, follow, and favorite! It really makes my day! :) Also, check out my profile for a shuffle challenge poll or comment if you would like to see a HP shuffle challenge. Thank ya, love ya, peace out! :)

Written for the Grammar School Challenge as part of the IWSC, Round 7

Mahoutokoro, Year 2

Word count: 990

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"FRED! GEORGE! HARRY! RON! HERMIONE! GINNY!"

The six youngsters cringed and cursed as Mrs. Weasley's voice echoed through the halls of Grimmauld Place, suddenly followed by the screeching of Mrs. Black's portrait. Grimmauld Place's younger inhabitants were all sitting in Harry's and Ron's bedroom, playing Exploding Snap. Hermione, being jolted slightly by the yells of a furious Mrs. Weasley, dropped a card, thereby causing the entire tower of cards to blow up in smoke, which then rained sparks down into their hair and singed Ron's and George's eyebrows.

"Sorry!" Hermione said frantically nearly a dozen times over, patting her hair down to extinguish any minuscule flames.

"It's okay, Hermione," comforted a slightly irritated, yet amused, Harry.

"Well," said Fred, patting down George's hair, "what do you reckon Mum wants now?"

"Dunno," Ron said, flinging a tiny spark off Harry's shoulder.

"You don't think she –" Hermione began nervously, but George interrupted her.

"Nah, she couldn't have."

"She could never find it there," Ginny reasoned, though her tone voiced hesitancy.

Two days ago, they had planted an old Muggle voice recorder of Hermione's under a loose floorboard in the kitchen, intending to retrieve it a couple of nights later and listen to it's contents. This had been their latest attempt at discovering what the Order meetings entailed.

Now, however, it sounded as though that attempt may have been foiled as well. Mrs. Weasley's voice rang out again. "Get down here now! All of you!"

They wandered downstairs, dreading the look on Mrs. Weasley's features that would face them. They passed Remus and Sirius who were tugging the curtains of Mrs. Black's portrait shut; Sirius winked at them as they passed.

As they reached the kitchen doorway, the children all stopped, exchanged looks, took a deep breath, and peered in. Molly Weasley stood there, an enraged look upon her face.

"What is this?" Mrs. Weasley held the voice recorder in her hand, stern eyes searching their faces for guilt.

"It – it's a Muggle voice recorder," Hermione said, leading the rest of them into the kitchen, in front of Mrs. Weasley.

"Why was it under the floorboards?" Mrs. Weasley asked, already knowing the answer.

Sirius and Remus, who were the only others currently there, came into the kitchen behind the children, looking from them to the furious mother.

As one, all the children began arguing how they should be allowed to know what was going on in the meetings. Ginny's argument was the loudest though, and soon drowned out the other voices.

"YOU FORGET," she shouted angrily, stepping towards her mother. "I FOUGHT TOM RIDDLE WHEN I WAS ELEVEN YEARS OLD! I WAS CONTROLLED AND MANIPULATED, AND I HURT PEOPLE BECAUSE OF HIM! I HATE HIM! I WANT HIM TO PAY FOR WHAT HE'S DONE TO ME AND MY FRIENDS AND MY FAMILY! YOU DON'T CARE THOUGH, DO YOU?"

"We took you to see a mind Healer!" Molly put in, but Ginny just scoffed.

"You think some stupid mind Healer is going to help me?" she cried. "I still have nightmares nearly every night because of him and what he did to me! I still have flashbacks when I walk through certain corridors at Hogwarts or see certain people! Sometimes, I get flashbacks to the Chamber, just because I see Harry! YOU DON'T CARE THOUGH, DO YOU?" Ginny then started speaking in a mock imitation of her mother. "You just think, _Oh, my precious, little, baby girl needs to be safe and sound all the time_. Well, guess what, Mum," she added with finality, returning to her normal voice, "we're in the middle of a war right now, so I don't see that happening any time soon."

Everyone had backed away from Ginny, for the air around her was as hot as a furnace. She stared at her mother for another moment, then turned, pushed past Sirius and Remus, and bolted upstairs.

_xxxxxxxxx_

Ginny lay on her bed, her anger simmering now, instead of boiling. She stared unseeingly at the ceiling. It had been roughly twenty minutes since she had shouted at her mother, and she was pretty sure that her mother had spent those minutes lecturing Hermione, Harry, and her brothers again about why they weren't allowed in the meetings.

A knock on her door interrupted her thoughts.

"Go away," she muttered, eyes counting the cracks in the plaster.

"Ginny?" The person behind the door spoke. It was Harry.

"Oh, come in, then," she mumbled, sitting up and watching Harry's face poke through the doorway.

"Hey, Gin," he said shyly. "I'm sorry."

"For what? You haven't done anything." Ginny asked. She was confused. What would Harry be sorry about? She scooted over on the bed, silently inviting Harry to sit down next to her.

"For being such a selfish prat," Harry burst out. "I – I forgot about – about everything. Everything that happened to you when you were only eleven. I don't know what happened," Harry rambled, "I suppose I just got so caught up in my own life that I started forgetting what was happening to other people around me. I started thinking about myself and not others anymore. I completely forgot about everything you went through. I'm so so sorry!"

"Harry," Ginny said, when finally there was a break in Harry's apology. "It's okay!"

"No, it's n –"

"Harry, really," Ginny interrupted. "It's okay. I mean, yeah, I still think about it and all that, but, honestly, it's sometimes easier when people don't talk to me about it. It's sometimes easier to pretend in never happened."

"Yeah, but I shouldn't have forgotten about it," Harry said, looking at his hands, as he sat down next to Ginny.

"Well, it's in the past, isn't it?" Ginny said, hesitantly resting her head on his shoulder, smiling when he didn't stiffen and move away. "Let's just move and look to the future, shall we?"

Harry sighed. "Y'know, Ginny. You really are a fire, just like Fred says."


End file.
